Soft, creamy and smooth, resembling Camembert, five to six inches in diameter and 1-1/4 inches thick. Named from its home town, Barberey, near Troyes, whose name it also bears. Fresh, warm milk is coagulated by rennet in four hours. Uncut curd then goes into a wooden mold with a perforated bottom, to drain three hours, before being finished off in an earthenware mold. The cheeses are salted, dried and ripened three weeks in a cave. The season is from November to May and when made in summer they are often sold fresh.

Barboux _France_

Soft.

Baronet _U.S.A._

A natural product, mild and mellow.

Barron _France_

Soft.

Ba.s.sillac _see_ Bleu.

Bath _England_

Gently made, lightly salted, drained on a straw mat in the historic resort town of Bath. Ripened in two weeks and eaten only when covered with a refined fuzzy mold that's also eminently edible. It is the most delicate of English-speaking cheeses.

Battelmatt _Switzerland, St. Gothard Alps, northern Italy, and western Austria_

An Emmentaler made small where milk is not plentiful. The "wheel" is only sixteen inches in diameter and four inches high, weighing forty to eighty pounds. The cooking of the curd is done at a little lower temperature than Emmentaler, it ripens more rapidly--in four months --and is somewhat softer, but has the same holes and creamy though sharp, full nutty flavor.

Bauden (_see also_ Koppen) _Germany, Austria, Bohemia and Silesia_

Semisoft, sour milk, hand type, made in herders' mountain huts in about the same way as Harzkase, though it is bigger. In two forms, one cup shape (called Koppen), the other a cylinder. Strong and aromatic, whether made with or without caraway.

Bavarian Beer cheese _see_ Bayrischer Bierkase.

Bavarian Cream _German_

Very soft; smooth and creamy. Made in the Bavarian mountains.

Especially good with sweet wines and sweet sauces.

Bavarois a la Vanille _see_ Fromage Bavarois.

Bayonne _see_ Fromage de Bayonne.

Bayrischer Bierkase _Bavaria_

Bavarian beer cheese from the Tyrol is made not only to eat with beer, but to dunk in it.

Beads of cheese _Tibet_

Beads of hard cheese, two inches in diameter, are strung like a necklace of cowrie sh.e.l.ls or a rosary, fifty to a hundred on a string.

_Also see_ Money Made of Cheese.

Beagues _see_ Tome de Savoie.

Bean Cake, Tao-foo, or Tofu _China, j.a.pan, the Orient_

Soy bean cheese imported from Shanghai and other oriental ports, and also imitated in every Chinatown around the world. Made from the milk of beans and curdled with its own vegetable rennet.

Beaujolais _see_ Chevretons.

Beaumont, or Tome de Beaumont _Savoy, France_

A more or less successful imitation of Trappist Tamie, a trade-secret triumph of Savoy. At its best from October to June.

Beaupre de Roybon _Dauphine, France_

A winter specialty made from November to April.

Beckenried _Switzerland_

A good mountain cheese from goat milk.

Beer cheese _U.S.A._

While our beer cheese came from Germany and the word is merely a translation of Bierkase, we use it chiefly for a type of strong Limburger made mostly in Milwaukee. This fine, aromatic cheese is considered by many as the very best to eat while drinking beer. But in Germany Bierkase is more apt to be dissolved in a gla.s.s or stein of beer, much as we mix malted powder in milk, and drunk with it, rather than eaten.

Beer-Regis _Dorsetshire, England_

This sounds like another beer cheese, but it's only a mild Cheddar named after its hometown in Dorsetshire.

Beist-Cheese _Scotland_

A curiosity of the old days. "The first milk after a calving, boiled or baked to a thick consistency, the result somewhat resembling new-made cheese, though this is clearly not a true cheese." (MacNeill)

Belarno _Italy_

Hard; goat; creamy dessert cheese.

Belgian Cooked _Belgium_

The milk, which has been allowed to curdle spontaneously, is skimmed and allowed to drain. When dry it is thoroughly kneaded by hand and is allowed to undergo fermentation, which takes ordinarily from ten to fourteen days in winter and six to eight days in summer. When the fermentation is complete, cream and salt are added and the mixture is heated slowly and stirred until h.o.m.ogeneous, when it is put into molds and allowed to ripen for eight days longer. A cheese ordinarily weighs about three-and-a-half pounds. It is not essentially different from other forms of cooked cheese.

Beli Sir _see_ Domaci.

Bellelay, Tete de Moine, or Monk's Head _Switzerland_

Soft, b.u.t.tery, semisharp spread. Sweet milk is coagulated with rennet in twenty to thirty minutes, the curd cut fairly fine and cooked not so firm as Emmentaler, but firmer than Limburger. After being pressed, the cheeses are wrapped in bark for a couple of weeks until they can stand alone. Since no eyes are desired in the cheeses, they are ripened in a moist cellar at a lowish temperature. They take a year to ripen and will keep three or four years. The diameter is seven inches, the weight nine to fifteen pounds. The monk's head after cutting is kept wrapped in a napkin soaked in white wine and the soft, creamy spread is sc.r.a.ped out to "b.u.t.ter" bread and snacks that go with more white wine. Such combinations of old wine and old cheese suggest monkish influence, which began here in the fifteenth century with the jolly friars of the Canton of Bern. There it is still made exclusively and not exported, for there's never quite enough to go around.

Bel Paese _Italy_

_See under_ Foreign Greats, Chapter 3. _Also see_ Mel Fino, a blend, and Bel Paese types--French Boudanne and German Saint Stefano. The American imitation is not nearly so good as the Italian original.

Bel Paesino _U.S.A._